Defrosting Cold Cases

The Washington Examiner reports about efforts to strengthen Maryland’s Capital Punishment Laws. “Maryland lawmakers and the state attorney general are bucking calls to repeal the death penalty with a bill that would expand the types of evidence admissible in capital cases. Sen. Norman R. Stone Jr., D-Baltimore County, is sponsoring a bill that would enable courts [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Capital Punishment, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Maryland, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Wrongful Convictions

For nearly two years, the DNA samples connecting Ronald Brown to the rape of a teenage girl sat in the state police forensic laboratory while the convicted murderer roamed the streets of New Haven, CT, USA. Brown had been released from prison in November 2006 — but not before giving authorities a DNA sample that [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arkansas, Connecticut, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Finger Printing, Forensics, Maryland, Miscarriage of Justice, Victim, Virginia, Witnesses